Truly Twisted - The Murder of Justine Vanderschoot

0:04 Fire Eyes Media. Justine Vanderschute had her whole life ahead of her at just seventeen years old. She was bright and vibrant, always the life of the party. She was known to be quite funny, and her family described her as being a little firecracker. Unfortunately, before she even got the chance to make some tough decisions for herself, her life was cut short. With that said, let's get into Justine's story. Welcome to another episode of Truly Twisted. As always, I'm your host, Alicia Watson, and every Thursday, I will be bringing you a true and twisted story that is always victim focused and fact based. Thank you so much for being here, and remember to subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And whether I've caught you on your commute to work, cleaning your house, or at the gym, I do just want to warn you that this story is hard to hear, and I would like to give a trigger warning for domestic abuse before we get started.

1:21 On September first, two thousand and three, Justine Vanderschute and her family were celebrating Labor Day by having a family barbecue. Justine would invite her boyfriend Danny over, and it was just like any other night at the household. Danny Besmer did not have the greatest home life himself and would often spend time at Justine's house. They had become the family that he never got to have. Justine and her older sister Christine were extremely close and just eighteen months apart, so they shared a lot of the same friends. That is actually how Danny and Justine would meet in the first place. Christine had become friends with Brandon Fernandez and he invited his best friend Danny to her pool party. Originally, he had planned to set up Christine and Danny, but Danny hit it off with Justine. They had a lot of common interests and for him, it was definitely love at first sight. Of course, Christine didn't mind, but just so you get an idea of their circle and how they met. Danny and Justine became serious fast and often talked about their future together and marriage. At the time, Justine was fifteen and Danny was seventeen. Justine's father, Don got Danny a job working with him at an auto dealership as his first job, and he quickly became a part of their family. Given Danny's home life, her parents wanted to give him that support. He even got a

2:52 key to the Vanderschut's house in case he needed to come there when they weren't home. Justine was incredibly creative and would often design and sew her own clothing. She was heading into her graduating year in two thousand and three and she wanted to work in fashion when she was done school. Honestly very cool. She was incredibly ambitious in fact, and Danny didn't really like that. He was obsessed with the fear of losing her. Danny was controlling over who Justine's friends were and would make her feel bad anytime she did anything outside of hanging out with him. When he saw her next, he would ask her a bunch of questions about who was there and what they did.

3:34 It was honestly starting to feel a little bit suffocating. Justine would confide in Brandon's girlfriend, Lindsey Morris about their troubles, and was even quoted as saying she was worried if she ever broke up with him that he wouldn't ever really let her go. Justine believed that part of the issues in her relationship was Danny's friendship with Brandon. She knew that he had cheated on his own girlfriend and didn't feel like he was a very good person or a good influence on that matter. Danny and Brandon would lose touch for about a year as a result, but in two thousand and two the boys would reconnect and actually ended up moving in together. Danny had graduated and he needed to get his own place, and because of the trouble with Justine, he couldn't always rely on being at her house. The tensions became quite high between Justine, Danny, and Brandon. Brandon openly hated Justine, calling her a whore.

4:32 He thought of her as a thorn in his friendship with Danny. By April of two thousand and three, things had reached ahead during a spring break trip to Florida and April, Justine had met someone she really liked. He was a Navy seal in Pensacola, and if anything, the meeting opened her eyes even more to the problems that she was facing with Danny. Nothing happened between the two of them, but she was very unhappy in her relationship. Justine would tell her friends about the Navy seal guy, how she thought he was cute and that she would like to spend more time with him, but again, leaving a relationship that is controlling is hard and not to mention statistically dangerous. Rumors began to spread and Danny became obsessed with the fact that Justine must be cheating on him.

5:21 While at a party at Danny and Brandon's house, Justine and Lindsey had a major heart to heart on the front porch. They both felt like they deserved better in their relationships and that they had had enough. They made a pack to break up with the boys, which brings us back to the start of our story. The next morning, September two, when Justine's mother went into her room to say goodbye before she left for work, she found that she wasn't in her bed. In fact, the front door was unlocked and Justine's truck was gone. Many searches would be held for Justine in the community. Missing person's flyers with a pink ribbon were hung up all over town because pink was her favorite color, and Justine's family had shirts and distributed them amongst everyone. They were incredibly worried as this was not like their daughter. Danny was also very involved with the searches and appeared to be incredibly distraught.

6:17 Investigators got their first break in the search when Justine's truck was located at a park and ride. The doors were locked and it appeared that she had left it there intentionally. This was also along a very busy interstate, so she could have gone anywhere. Did she possibly go and meet up with this Navy seal guy? Did she run away on her own accord, or did something horrible happen to her. Investigators were able to track down the Navy seal guy pretty much right away, but it became clear quickly that he knew nothing about Justine's disappearance and was cleared as a suspect. Police continued to search the immediate area around the park and ride, and that is what am named Matt Scribner came forward. He said that a few weeks prior, while riding the trails in the area training one of his horses, that he had come across a freshly dug hole. He thought it was strange, but at the time he didn't think anything of it.

7:17 It's not until he saw investigators in the area searching for Justine that something clicked for him and that the two things could possibly be involved. But when he had ridden back to the area, a week later where he saw the hole. It didn't appear to be there anymore, and he couldn't find where it was, but at least this gave them an area to search and some people to talk to. At just eighteen years old, Danny had a history of run ins with the law, having been arrested for theft and possession of stolen property. Brandon Fernandez, at twenty one, was not much better. He was known for his intelligence and cunning nature, and he seemed to have a fascination with violence, often discussed harming others. He even went as far as creating a website ranking levels of violence, complete with images of crime scenes and dead bodies.

8:11 Truly disturbed. Like I said earlier, Danny didn't have a great upbringing and looked up to Brandon in a way. This, along with Brandon's hatred of Justine and Danny's controlling nature, is likely what led to Justine's tragic murder. Danny and Brandon were both interviewed in the early days of the investigation, having been close with Justine, but claimed to have been home together the evening of September first. According to Danny, he went home after dinner at the Bandershoots and hung out with Brandon. Police were definitely suspicious of the two of them from the beginning because of their past experiences with the law. Justine's friends coming forward with concerns over Danny and reports of how controlling he tended to be also solidified their suspicions. Brandon's girlfriend, Lindsay even reported that he had told her if he ever wanted to kill her that no one would find her, and while he played this off as a joke, it was incredibly disturbing and given that Auburn, California, where this story takes place, is incredibly wooded and vast, that would scare me. Investigators continued to follow up with Danny and Brandon and enlisted the help of the FBI to do further interviews with them.

9:31 Brandon's phone had two miss calls to Justine on the evening of September. First, he said that he had been jet skiing with friends while Danny was at the Vanderschoots and headed home because he wasn't feeling very well. He said that the reason that he'd called Justine twice was because he had gotten pulled over for running a stop sign on the way home and meant to call his girlfriend Lindsey and that their names are side by side in his phone. Okay, but the boys would be caught in their first lie. Brandon's cousin, Clayton Cole, and a friend had actually spent the night at Danny and Brandon's the night that Justine went missing, so they weren't home alone hanging out together as they had previously said. Clayton told detectives that he had seen Brandon and Danny leave the house and that they did not come back until much later. During their second interview with Brandon, the FBI had some new proof up their sleeves as a result.

10:29 After this tip, Clayton was asked to call Brandon and wear a wire, and they played that recorded call back to Brandon. In the call, basically, it says that Clayton is feeling guilty and that he needs to go to the police about Justine. Brandon tells his cousin that he can't do that because it would basically fuck up their plan. Brandon was completely rattled by this phone call, and FBI asked him if he had ever seen anyone die. Brandon went completely white and hung his head, telling agents how afraid he was of Danny and that he needed protection before he told them anything else. He said that Danny strangled Justine in the back of his car, and that he had no idea Danny was going to do that.

11:14 He said that the three of them were planning on sneaking out and stealing some marijuana from a local farm. Apparently Danny had tapped Justine's phone and was trying to catch her cheating, and he was planning on hurting her, but he had no idea what it would be. That night, he said that he had met Danny and Justine at the park and ride around midnight, and they drove his car. Danny was giving him directions on where to go and when they parked, he said that Danny told him he wanted to be alone with Justine to talk privately, so he got out of the car and walked aways away to give them some privacy. Brandon then said that he heard a car horn followed by a scream and hurried back to find Danny had strangled Justine. Brandon's statements became more inconsistent. On the one hand, he said that he didn't know that Danny was going to do that, but on the other hand, he said that he was worried about Justine and that the two missed calls on her phone were him trying to get a hold of Danny to stop him. But you also walked away and left him alone with him. Nothing is adding up here. Brandon claimed that all he had done was help Danny bury the body. He blamed everything on Danny in fact, but he would lead investigators to where she was buried. Truly twisted.

12:33 We'll be right back after this quick ad break, and on September eighteenth, two thousand and three, over two weeks after Justine had gone missing, her remains would be found, and the grave was covered in debris to cover the disturbed dirt, which is why Matt wasn't able to find it again when he went back. Danny had removed Justine's clothes before putting her in the grave and then dumped chemicals all over her to beat up decomposition. Brandon's interview gives even more inconsistencies to her time of death as well. In one account that he gave, she was lifeless when he came back to the car, and in another she was still breathing slightly after they placed her in the grave, and he began crying and praying for her to just go so that it would all be over. Allegedly, Danny told Brandon that if he told anyone, he would kill him, Lindsey, and himself. Brandon said that he was scared and that's why he didn't intervene. So there's just inconsistencies all over the map. But the interview was four and a half hours before he led investigators to where Justine was buried.

13:46 Danny and Brandon were immediately arrested for Justine's murder. The search for her was finally over, but justice would continue to be a fight. Danny would be interviewed again and told detectives that he started to strangle Justine, but she said in a fight for her life, Danny, I love you, and that Brandon encouraged him to keep going, saying that it was too late now and that it would already be attempted murder. After she was placed in the grave, they poured drain cleaner over her and Brandon poured some down her throat. Justine's official cause of death was homicidal violence, but her autopsy showed dirt deep with in her lungs, indicating that she was still alive when she was buried and had ingested some of the dirt. The Vanderschoots wanted to avoid a lengthy and painful trial, so instead, prosecutors offered Danny a plea deal for full information of Brandon's involvement in exchange for a sentence of twenty five years to life for first degree murder. This would mean that there was a possibility of Danny being released when he was forty five years old. Brandon Fernandez pled guilty to second degree murder and was charged with fifteen years to life, even though Matt Scribner's testimony indicated that there was premeditation in Justine's murder and the grave being dug in advance. Unfortunately, there was no way at this point to prove that

15:17 Brandon had helped Danny digget. Justine's parents, Don and Lynnette planted many of the flowers that were given to them through condolences outside of their daughter's bedroom window. They put a footprint impression of her as well from when she was small, and her favorite trees. They affectionately call it Justine's Garden. Even though it's been almost twenty two years, it still feels fresh for her family. A large part of this is that they do not get to rest. Danny and Brandon continue to apply for pearl and try and get released early from prison. The family has been in courts seven times to give statements since Justine's murder to keep her killers behind bars. Her sister, Christine says that she misses her best friend every day and feels lost without Justine. She understands that she needs to continue to be her sister's voice and fight for her so that she can rest easy. Brandon was up for his first parole in twenty seventeen, but was denied given the victim statements of the Vanderschoots. But in twenty eighteen, California changed their murder laws and in twenty twenty Brandon Fernandez would file a petition to be retried as an accessory to murder. Given this new law, this meant that anyone who did not actually commit the crime could not be given a life sentence, and I can only imagine the devastation in this for Justine's family, as it's clear that

16:49 Brandon has not taken any responsibility nor does he feel any remorse. Despite the judge denying Brandon's motion for a retrial, that was overturned given this new law, and a trial would need to be held proving his involvement beyond a reasonable doubt. In May of twenty twenty four, prosecutors would use Danny as their star witness in proving Brandon's guilt, and it's very clear that the two played off each other planning Justine's murder. Brandon purchased the drain cleaner that they used to dump over her body and borrowed a pickaxe from his parents' house to dig the grave. The two dug the grave over several days leading up to September first, matching the testimony of Matt Scribner having seen the freshly dug dirt. There was additional evidence found at Brandon's work as well, indicating his knowledge of the plan, including the wiring device that Danny used to tap Justine's phone and a shredded receipt for a new set of tires from the day after her murder. Brandon's defense claimed that Danny being the only witness was problematic because of course he would say or do anything to increase his chances of pearl himself one day. They claim that Danny is the real monster, and in my opinion, They're both absolutely heartless monsters, and my heart just aches for Justine and her family. Justine's father, Dawn, was quoted as saying

18:21 that he fears that he may never get the full story of what happened to his daughter from either of her killers. Over the years, their family has heard at least five different versions of the event. On August first, twenty twenty four, after all evidence and testimony had been gathered against Brandon Fernandez, he would stand trial. If his case won, he would be able to walk free, but thankfully, his motion was denied and the judge upheld his sentence. In the judge's statement, he himself said that the legal system can be very unfair to the victim's families and survivors of crime. We see this all the time, but I'm just really glad that somebody of this caliber is the person to say it. Justine's family will have two more hearings for Brandon and Danny in the next two years, in twenty twenty seven and twenty twenty eight. They said that they will never stop fighting for her. Their lives just keep getting put on pause. They're never really able to fully move forward. If there is a possibility that either of them can get out. In the meantime, though, they have done something very beautiful to honor Justine's memory.

19:35 In twenty twenty three, Justine's Law was passed to develop a statewide teen dating violence prevention resource to support participating school districts. Justine's family will tell you that there were signs, but they thought at the time it was just a young teenage boy acting bigger than he truly felt. It seems harmless until after the fact, but they're hope in creating Justine's Law is to prevent any more stories from ending this way. Justine's mom says that her daughter visits her as a hummingbird in her garden, coming right up to her face, and she talks to them as a way of bringing her comfort. And you could help Justine's family by signing the petition to stop the release of Danny and Brandon on their next paroles, and I will link that for you in the show notes. And in the meantime, I do hope that Justine's family is able to find their piece one day and that her killers remain behind bars. Remember that you are loved, you are wanted, and you deserve to be here. And I will see you next week. Truly Twisted is a proud production of Fire Eyes Media, a woman owned and operated network. This show is hosted, researched, and edited by me Alicia Watson, and I would love if you would email me any case, suggestions or comment so you may have Adalicia at Fireeyesmedia dot com, Fireeyes Media